Ahh! Chicken Soup!

There is something sacred about home made chicken soup, and I can't quite figure out if it is in the making or eating.

I am on the tail end of a very bad virus and have been reflecting, over the course of this nasty bug, how I have been comforted.  How those around me, who love and support me, have offered their sacrifices of time and talent at the altar of my needs.

 Phone calls, emails and cards from several friends and family members, with concerns for my well-being, now grace my soul with words of comfort.  But the most sacred act of all came from my husband.  

After I spent a couple of days in fevered sleep, he awoke me with a steaming bowl of home made chicken soup.  I could see the love, concern and pride in his eyes as he handed me the bowl, warning me to be careful, as it was hot.  He waited while I ate several spoonfuls and then asked me if it was okay.  I have to admit I was a little chocked up over the fact that he took the time to do this for me.  Not to say that he doesn't cook for me, he does quite often, but there is just something about someone taking the time to shop for chicken, gather the vegetable from our garden, wash and chopped and simmer and season the soup and then offer it up as if it were the most heavenly food in all the universe.  Which I have to say, at that time, was the most heavenly food in the universe. 

So, is it the making and the giving, or is it the receiving and consuming that makes chicken soup a sacred thing.  I like to think it is sacred on all accounts.  To take the time and talent and create something that will bring comfort to another soul is sacred.  To receive a gift in love from the hands of another human being and be warmed and healed by the very act of giving and receiving is a sacred moment. 

Ahh! Chicken soup!

What is a penny worth?

Many people today think the penny is not worth minting anymore.  If they only knew what a penny would buy they may change their mind.

When my children were little they asked why we saved our pennies in the little Noah's ark bank and the little blue box with UTO (United Thank Offering) printed on the side.  I explained to them that in poor communities around the world a penny bought a cup of milk for a hungry belly, a nickel bought a vaccination against bad germs that kept children from being able to play outside, a dime helped families buy chickens for eggs, goats for milk and llamas for wool to make sweaters and blankets, and a quarter helped build a school, a hospital or a well for clean water to drink or bathe in.  

So whenever we would find change on the ground or in the washer or dryer we would put it in the banks and say, "That's a cup of milk."

My children has since grown up and gone out into the world and yet even today I keep a Noah's ark bank on my dryer and a box with NIN (Neighbors in Need) printed on it in my car and when I find change on the ground or in the washer or dryer I still pick it up and put it in the bank and say, "That's a cup of milk."